HP 31/31, AC 12, CMD 15, Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +5 Per +1 Channel 9/9, Grave Touch 8/8, Shirt 1/1, Slippers 10/10
It's not. It's climbing on the hull, hanging onto the sides while it demolishes what's in front of it. That's actually how arctic crabs burrow through ice sheets.
Also, it's an earth elemental, but nothing says what kind of earth it is. Maybe it's made of pumice. ;)
Interesting tactics. Can burrow go through wood? I thought it worked for earth only. What if the ship was an ironclad Titanic? Or an adamantine Titanic?
Huh. Interesting idea. At the very least maybe it's simply hanging onto the hull and attacking it round after round, and the attacks are flavored as "burrowing"?
I havne't a clue if an earth elemental can technically burrow through wood, either, but if it can punch a hole, I'm all for it. :)
Honestly I went through the same thoughts on this. In the end, I figured it was cool enough to let it fly. Even if not technically burrowing, the same effect I figured could be achieved, which is sinking the boat from underneath.
Oh yes, it was just a technical question. The tactic was cool and fun, and he could have achieved similar result with other stuff (say a fire elemental into the sails, or in the barrel were the ship hides the lantern's oil). I'm all up for creative use of spells (which Xanos seems to be very proficient with) Just wondering if there was some official ruling about it, it might be important in other situations. Burrowing the cell's floor in a 6' radius for example.
HP 31/31, AC 12, CMD 15, Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +5 Per +1 Channel 9/9, Grave Touch 8/8, Shirt 1/1, Slippers 10/10
I'll make a rules post about it and see what people have to say.
Personally, I figure anything with the Burrow ability capable of tunneling quickly through rock, will make short work of wood.
I was thinking about it from the perspective of "what happens when an earth elemental hits tree roots while burrowing? In the end, the answer I came up with was "nothing special".
If that's the case, then the Burrow ability is the bane of every ship, which is pretty cool really.
Alternative ideas involved Ice or Magma Elementals, since energy attacks tend to bypass hardness.
A boat that size has a hull no thicker than 2-3 inches. One way or another I was going through it. >:)
You won't find a strict RAW answer to this one because Paizo forgot to/decided not to write any rules for burrow. So it's all up to Mark.
The vile DM reclines back in his throne composed of gaming tables tossed and destroyed by angry players from the years gone by, warmed by a fire fed by the sheets of characters slain under his regime. He drinks from a cup filled with the tears of players who have lost beloved friends given form by their imaginations. He sits down his cup, a cup now seen to be composed of dice molded together, dice who only show ones for all their sides. He brings his fingertips together and looks out upon his current batch of victims and smiles. "Excellent...."
You do not scare me. I just shot a monk in the back who is at least a couple of levels higher than me. He sleeps in my bunkhouse and said he is going to kill me. The party member that he told this to said "go ahead."
Percep +3. Init +8 -- Hp 39/39. AC 18, t12, ff16. Fort+4, Ref+4, Will+6
Cain... wrote:
Everyone doing alright? Game seems to have slowed down a bit.
I'm mostly around. One of my jobs is at an apple orchard, and it's in the middle of the busy time of year. Things should settle down before too long. And I still have some time to post, just not necessarily every day.
HP 31/31, AC 12, CMD 15, Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +5 Per +1 Channel 9/9, Grave Touch 8/8, Shirt 1/1, Slippers 10/10
Ah, the adventurer learning curve.
It seems that no matter how long you play the game for, every low level character you have has to go through the realization of the obvious things that they really aught to carry around with them but for some reason forgot.
Conversly, there's always that one thing that every character you ever make carries around because of that one time in another game that it was desperately useful (or that not having it got you killed)
For me it's soap. Every single character carries soap.
On the ooc topic though, thieves tools. Every single roguish style character I make, I forget to buy thieves tools. There's been exactly two occurrences I can remember actually remembering them.
1) A warlock in fourth edition. I had purchased them as Thievery was a class skill (not sure how). FYI, I didn't have it trained.
2) A wizard I had made had built a 'battle-wagon'. It was just a covered wagon with magical defenses that carried a TON of adventuring gear, including multiple sets of thieves tools both masterwork and none. Every time we looted a set they would go in the battle-wagon, so we had quite a few by the time we were done.
Percep +3. Init +8 -- Hp 39/39. AC 18, t12, ff16. Fort+4, Ref+4, Will+6
Light sources/firemaking tools/etc. I'm usually pretty good about remembering a continual flame torch with a higher level guy, but at level 1 it's often been:
"The next room is dark? Okay, I pull out my... uh.... crap."
This happened mostly in a group back in 3.5 before at will light cantrips and such... with four or five characters at least.
HP: 38/38 AC 22/14/18: F+6, R +4, W+1*, Per:0, Init: +11
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Is there any sort of check for crossing to the enemy vessel?
Mark et al, hope you don't mind the many questions - still getting up to speed on the ruleset and a boarding action at sea is not exactly beginner box material.;-)
Percep +3. Init +8 -- Hp 39/39. AC 18, t12, ff16. Fort+4, Ref+4, Will+6
Gwyn, feel free to borrow Shulme's crossbow if you like until you have a chance to buy your own. Between attack spells, buffing, healing, summoning, or alchemist's fire he has plenty of options in ranged combat already and probably won't use it much.
Alternately, might just be able to yoink one of the Talirean's bows (what kind are they using? Rogues are proficient in shortbows but not longbows IIRC, no?)
Is there any sort of check for crossing to the enemy vessel?
Mark et al, hope you don't mind the many questions - still getting up to speed on the ruleset and a boarding action at sea is not exactly beginner box material.;-)
Sorry, hadn't responded to this, so going to do so now.
When it comes to rulings on things I don't have one for, I'm pretty laid back and lenient on these things. My preferences tend to go like this:
Story > Awesome > Rules
For example, Xanos's earth elemental. A strict intpretation of the rules it probably shouldn't work and in a Society game would probably disallow it. But since this isn't Society, and I classify it as Awesome, I'll allow it.
In your boarding, I couldn't find anything specifically, so a climb check is fine by me. I also would accept an acrobatics roll (even letting you use strength instead of dexterity) or probably any other number of options as long as reasonably presented.
The best thing to do, in my opinion, is when not certain, just describe what you want to try and roll a d20 for it. I'll look up your skills, see what might be appropriate and use that modifer to see for success. Sometimes I'll use CMB vs. CMD depending on the situation.
Now that all said, sometimes there will be a rule and I won't know it and make a different call on it. Feel free to let me know, that way I know as well for the future. I make mistakes (though don't tell my co-workers).
In the end though, the important thing is fun!
DISCLAIMER: I'm very tired when writing this, so if it seems rambly, that's why.
Percep +3. Init +8 -- Hp 39/39. AC 18, t12, ff16. Fort+4, Ref+4, Will+6
Mark, it looks like one of the sailors who mobbed Teon is the one I missed last round? Or did he die? If it was him, then he moved further than a 5' step away from me - can I take an AoO?
